FALL RIVER — Admitting he was once adamantly opposed to a pay-as-you-throw program, Mayor Will Flanagan said he had a change of heart and plans to use the anticipated $3.5 million in additional revenue from such a plan to fund 22 firefighter positions.

“As the fiscal climate has changed, our priorities have to change,” said Flanagan during a Herald News editorial board meeting on Thursday.

Accompanied by representatives from WasteZero, the company that will manage the program, Director of Community Maintenance Ken Pacheco and City Administrator Cathy Ann Viveiros, Flanagan said he was faced with cutting the fire department staff from 213 to 153 and finding several million additional dollars to meet net school spending requirements.

The city will also see the loss of $1.8 million annually once the Fall River Industrial Park landfill closes by October.

“At that point, after it was brought up in several financial meetings, I opted to sit down with WasteZero to discuss the program with them,” Flanagan said.

However, starting the pay-as-you-throw program is dependent upon the City Council’s approval of his proposed fiscal 2015 budget.

If approved, Flanagan said the plan will be rolled out on Aug. 1.

Viveiros said the council members will receive copies of the proposed budget Friday.

Bags will be distributed by WasteZero to retailers throughout the city with three bag options — an 8-gallon bag costing .75 cents; a 15-gallon bag costing $1.25; and a 30-gallon bag for $2.

“Our goal is to have people recycle. Now that you are paying for a trash bag, it becomes a utility, just like you flip on a switch for electricity or water. You’re going to pay for what you use,” Flanagan said.

The solid waste bin pickup program will remain, and the city and WasteZero plan on an education campaign before Aug. 1.

“So the more you put into the blue recycling bin, the more recyclables we have in a community to pick up, so there’s a monetary value for that,” Flanagan said. “Now we have the reverse effect, we have less waste going in your green bin. So when we go to the transfer station and weigh the waste, our cost for waste disposal is going to go down. So there’s the environmental impact and the monetary impact for the city.”

Pacheco said he is applying for a $100,000 Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection grant to help fund enforcement.

Through a camera system mounted on the trash trucks or a spot check, Flanagan said they will be able to determine if people are complying with pay-as-you-throw.

The administration is still working out an enforcement program and whether a tenant should be penalized or whether it should be both a tenant and a landlord.

Page 2 of 2 - “That’s what we are discussing internally, and we’ll have a plan by Aug. 1,” Flanagan said.

Stephen Lisauskas, vice president of government affairs for WasteZero, emphasized that in addition to the $3.5 million, “your trash drops and your recycling increases.”

“A portion of the $3.5 million does not come from the residents of Fall River; it comes from reduced landfill disposal costs and the increased revenue from the sale of recyclables,” Lisauskas said.

Of the revenue from the program, Lisauskas said, $900,000 is attributed to savings.

“So of that $3.5 million, one of the interesting things of pay-as-you-throw, while it is an added fee, you are getting $3.5 million to fund local services, but aren’t paying for all of that because landfill savings is part of that and the recycling is part of that. So it’s an interesting and thoughtful way to fund local services.”

Over 20 years ago, retired Department of Public Works and Parks chief Robert Moylan for the city of Worcester, New England’s second-largest city, said he started a pay-as-you-throw program as the city faced a financial crisis and his department could not operate with any additional cuts.

Moylan said there was no community in the northeast the size of Worcester that had ever implemented the pay-as-you-throw program, and the concept was “unpopular.”

Despite push-back from some elected officials, the city moved ahead with the program, Moylan said.

The first week of the program, he said, there was 98 percent compliance. And in time, he said, the city cut its trash collection by half.

If Fall River sees a dramatic decrease in trash hauling, Pacheco said there will be no layoffs and he’ll now have the manpower to deal with other public works issues, like filling potholes.

Viveiros said the administration has been meeting with neighborhood groups and has gotten positive feedback about the program.

Flanagan made the point that while the pay-as-you-throw program is an additional fee, it goes toward funding city services.

“You’re buying a trash bag now, and that money is going to corporate America who produce the bag. This money is staying in the community,” Flanagan said.